The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is upset Apple declined to approve an anti-spam app for the App Store, a move which could hurt the tech giant’s ambitions in the country, Bloomberg reported.

Named Do Not Disturb, the app allows users to share details of spam calls and text messages so the data can be used by operators block offending numbers. Apple declined approval because it believes the app violates the App Store’s privacy policy.

“Nobody’s asking Apple to violate its privacy policy…It is a ridiculous situation, no company can be allowed to be the guardian of a user’s data,” the report quoted Ram Sewak Sharma, chairman of the regulator, as saying. He was also the person behind an Indian ban on Facebook’s Free Basics programme.

“The problem of who controls user data is getting acute and we have to plug the loose ends,” he said, adding: “This is not the regulator versus Apple, but Apple versus its own users.”

TRAI is looking for public and stakeholder comments in a consultation on users’ control over personal information and the flow of data through telecommunications networks. The process should be completed in September and may lead to new rules around user data, which could also become part of the telecom licensing process, Bloomberg said.

Any such measures could affect Apple, Facebook Google and other companies which handle large amounts of private and personal information.

Sharma said around six meetings have been held with Apple, with no resolution because the company only allows app data to be shared with affiliates and strategic partners.

Strategic importance
Apple does need the government on its side, though, as it is looking to India to fill a huge revenue gap created by six consecutive quarters of double-digit sales declines in China, and also as its first iPhone manufacturing hub outside of the mainland.

In May Apple began producing iPhone SE smartphones in India, the second largest smartphone market in the world after China and one of the fastest growing.

Recently Apple asked the government to offer tax breaks to its suppliers if the country aims to become a major manufacturing hub for smartphone components and iPhones.

Government officials have said it won’t give exemptions to a single company, but is working out a new policy which would apply to all device makers.